The day I had the senators ears.

I kicked the bald tyres on my faithful 'Beddie' and  as the sun is gathering strength so do I and I'm off to spend the day with Senator Rachel Siewert, Senator Claire Moore and Senator Judith Adams.

The wicked witch from the south

I spoke to the Senators and felt proud that I spoke to them openly and on the public record.  All other adopted people spoke 'in camera' which means in private but we all agreed we could be each other witnesses so we stayed in the room while we each told our stories.   Everybody else but the Senators and secretary and recorders had to  leave the room.  There was one adoptee who came later and spoke to the Senators without any witnesses other than her own support people.
I told them I had a dream.  A dream to stand in front of which ever legal minds need to be put into gear to get over the sheer ridiculousness of not legally being my sister's sister.
Are you confused ?  Good because I am, but we get that when we are adoptees. 
My two sisters, one elder and one younger.  Our parents were married in the catholic church when we were all born.    I was the only one to be relinquished at birth to genetic stranger adoption.  I want to go to the court and ask those learned legal minds who's LAW is right and just and for real?  Their ridiculous man made adoption laws that leave me as a legal stranger to my sisters, forever, or the law of nature that means we are sisters.  We share the same mother and father and I love them dearly, and I am so proud to be their sister. 
And the science will back us up in the court of law.  There is our DNA your hon-ours, so what do you say to that?
Two of the senators looked surprised when I explained to them that the authorities here in SA can take our  DNA and keep it on file even if we have committed NO CRIME. We might be the victim of a crime ! We talked about DNA certificates for new-born people.  Everybody has the right to their lives being based in the truth, surely.
My day with the senators yesterday ended up the way days such as yesterday often do.  I walked out of the building long after most everyone else had left.  I am in the company of two fellow Indigenous Australians, all three of us had been adopted into the dominant culture.  I'm so glad I stayed.  It was a privilege to  witness  other people's strength as they shared their journeys.   The senators seemed to be genuinely appreciative of the huge 'journey' we've been on to get to the point of talking to them.   We laugh, we share, I feel comfortable, in my skin.  My fair skin and blue eyes ensured I remained invisible, even to myself and then I come across people I feel connected to and I don't feel like an 'outsider', abandoned by my mother and abandoned again by the dominant culture, the one that has so cruelly tried to meld me into  their image.  I am not an alien any longer, I'm a dink-um Aussie OI.
And I now understand there is a difference between what happened to Aboriginal and Torres strait Islander children and those with a European background.